London, Oct. 27: Aravind Adiga, who won the Booker with his debut novel, The White Tiger, has said he parted company with his principal New York-based literary agent because the author was “unhappy” with the way he was represented and the decision had “nothing to do with money”.

Adiga confirmed he had told Jay Mandel, of the William Morris Agency (WMA), that he no longer wished to be represented by them.

However, Adiga angrily rejected a suggestion in a British newspaper report that WMA had been sacked “suddenly” or that the cause of the rift was over money.

Adiga emphasised to The Telegraph: “ I did not leave Jay Mandel recently; the break came in November 2007, before the book was published.”

He added: “The reasons had nothing to do with money. I was unhappy with how I was being represented by Jay Mandel.”

He has urged his publishers, Atlantic Books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, to publicise the reasons for the break and to correct what he feels have been inaccurate reports which have appeared in both the UK and India.

Adiga, who is sensitive to accusations, often made by Indians who have not yet read his book, he feels, that he has been “anti-national, anti-Hindu, anti-poor”, to give wide circulation for the reasons for his decision to part with WMA.

“Some of the negative publicity was beginning to die down,” said Adiga, “now it will be whipped up again.”

Since November 2007, “I have been without an agent,” disclosed Adiga. “It’s not necessary or compulsory for a writer to have an agent. It’s not as though you have to have an agent. But now I probably have to get an agent to deal with stories like this.”

He will certainly need a good agent to deal with interview requests, foreign rights, translations and possibly films rights in the future.

He spoke of why he had broken with WMA in New York.

“It had nothing to do with money,” he repeated. “I was unhappy with the way they were dealing with me. At various times, there was no response to my queries. Finally I decided I don’t need an agent.”

It is not unknown for writers to change agents. Salman Rushdie changed his twice before ending up with the New York based Andrew Wylie, who is one of the most high profile agents in the world.

After publication of his biography of V.S. Naipaul, Patrick French also switched to Wylie after leaving David Godwin, who is best known íIndia as Arundhati Roy’s agent.

But other writers, who have enjoyed a long and stable relationship with their agents, include Naipaul himself. His agent, Gillon Aitken, has achieved the remarkable feat of becoming the author’s close and trusted friend.

Adiga also disagreed with the suggestion in the British newspaper report that his agent had facilitated his Booker win.

“An agent has nothing to do with literary prizes, otherwise Andrew Wylie’s writers would win every time,” he said, a reference to the allegedly aggressive tactics adopted by Wylie to bully others into conceding the best of everything for those in his large “stable”.

The UK newspaper report had credited Cathryn Summerhayes, who works for WMA’s UK office, for having “secured an eye-watering advance for him at the London Book Fair last year”, as well as “helping Adiga win the £50,000 prize”.

William Morris Agency (UK) Ltd. says it “provides a valuable and necessary link between the entertainment communities on both sides of the Atlantic. The agency’s London office has achieved unprecedented commercial and artistic success for William Morris in the U.K. and throughout Europe.”

WMA’s literary department in London adds that it “represents best-selling and prize-winning authors from Great Britain, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and beyond. The department has also been successful selling books to film and television, as well as selling television tie-ins to book publishers.”

A “rueful” Summerhayes was quoted as saying about the break: “I guess you can call it being ‘sacked’'. No reason was given why. He just sent a letter to the US office to say that we would no longer be representing him, but that we would still look after the book rights. I don’t think you will find, however, any publisher who said we didn’t do a great job on the book and no one had a bad word to say about us.”

Adiga made it clear that his interaction with Summerhayes had been nil since she had been hired, not by him, but by WMA’s main New York office.

He told The Telegraph: “Cathryn Summerhayes was never my principal agent; it was Jay Mandel in New York. I have never met Ms Summerhayes.”

The Telegraph today approached both Cathryn Hayes at WMA and Grove Atlantic for comments and was waiting for their responses to the issues raised by Adiga.

The White Tiger, a murderous tale of Indian unshining told through Balram Halwai, a rickshawalla, is obviously selling briskly in London.

A woman who had been invited to the lavish party thrown last week to mark the 50 th birthday of the London hostess, Surina Narula, went into a bookshop to get her a copy of Adiga’s novel – among London’s rich Indians, Surina Narula is unusual in that she enjoys reading books (she and her husband, H S Narula, sponsor the Jaipur Literary Festival).

“The White Tiger was sold out,” said her guest.